A 'HOME-MADE' vaccine against the SARS-CoV-2 virus is expected to be in use in Spain by the end of this year, meaning it could be in time for inoculating young adults in low-risk occupations with no key physical health conditions.
Hipra's laboratories in Amer, Girona province (photo from Hipra's website)
The multi-national pharmaceutical company Hipra, based in Amer (Girona province), is working on two different varieties which will be among several developed in Spain – although the Hipra versions are likely to be the first to appear, meaning theirs is 'one of the projects that offers the most hope' in 'guaranteeing Spain's having its own vaccine in a very short space of time', according to the country's president Pedro Sánchez.
He visited the laboratories yesterday (Friday) to find out more.
One of the vaccines under construction at Hipra is an own-brand version, and the other is being developed in conjunction with the IDIBAPS team at Barcelona's Hospital Clínic.
The latter is already one of the World Health Organisation's (WHO's) candidates for pre-clinical trials.
Another three are being created by Spain's National Research Council (CSIC) but are not expected to be ready until well into 2022.
Hipra is, in fact, a veterinary pharmaceutical firm, although how animals react to vaccines is an integral part of the process of developing them for humans; viral vector shots, which include a 'dormant' or deactivated particle of a virus in a 'vector' or carrier, which stimulates the immune system to fight off the real thing, are the type typically given to dogs and cats as babies and then repeated periodically until approximately age 10 and 14 respectively, after which vets differ in their view as to whether or not booster jabs are helpful.
These vaccines offer almost total protection to pets, and cases of a vaccinated dog or cat catching a condition they are immunised against and becoming ill from it are extremely rare, practically anecdotal.
And Hipra is an expert in producing, researching and wholesale distribution of vaccines in pets, with considerable experience in the Coronavirus – a viral group that causes conditions such as the common cold and a strain of which causes Covid-19.
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